Tag: trees

Forest whispers

Ian HunterLeave a comment

I walked through a forest

Carpeted with leaves

Shimmering in the soft sunlight

Glowing faintly like fireflies

I paused beside a tree

Images flooded my mind

My mother stood beside the tree

My grandmother was beside her

I saw myself as a young boy playing nearby

These were not my memories

They were the tree’s memories

As we had all passed by there many years before

I picked up a handful of the golden leaves

Carried them home

Put them in a basket

They whispered to me daily

Stories from my grandmother

Sage advice from my mother

Silly murmurings from my young self

It was haunting so eventually I had to do something

I took the leaves back into the forest

Paused in front of the same tree

The tree said its time for you to move on

I nodded and dropped the leaves

Covering my ears as I ran away

I reached the edge of the forest

Looking back at the carpet of leaves

I called out to them

But I could only hear a whisper in reply

I was very tempting to go back

But I never did

Tree chatter

Ian HunterLeave a comment

Cooler days and chilly nights

Summer is officially over

Leaves are starting to turn orange

Nature has decided to turn a page

Start a new season before winter

Trees stop growing to conserve energy

Which begs the question

How do they know?

What triggers them to prepare for winter?

Who taught them? 

Do mother trees school their offspring?

Are tree roots connected to a web?

Communicating with each other constantly

Receiving tree weather messages

Here is today’s tree weather report

Getting tree bulletins about the impending seasonal changes

Its time to start turning your leaves orange

Organizing tree beauty pageants

Who has the biggest and brightest leaves?

Perhaps swapping tree selfies and chatting

Browsing tree social media

Scrolling the pages of TreeBook

Gossiping about passing humans

Look at this silly fellow playing golf in the rain

Reporting horror stories of chain saw tree massacres 

Humans came in waves felling down an entire forest

Announcing the birth of a new baby tree

Mr and Mrs Fir Tree are pleased to announce

Recording obituaries of fallen trees

He lived a long life and will be missed

Lectures on how roots can seek out water

Go deep and follow the scent

the tree of life

Ian Hunter1 Comment

Wood plays an important part in our lives

An organic material that literally grows on trees

Trees are not just things of beauty

They capture carbon from the atmosphere

Helping to create healthy air for us all to breathe

A new born baby sleeps in a wooden crib

That child lives in a home built from wood

Sits in a wooden chair

Eats at a wooden table

His food was prepared with a wooden spoon

He goes to school and sits at a wooden desk

Reading books made from wood

Leaving school with a diploma made from wood

He starts his career by knocking on a wooden door

Interviewed at a wooden table

Taking an office job with a wooden desk

Signing papers made from wood

Receiving a paycheck made from wood

Getting married in a church made mostly from wood

Building a new home mostly from wood

Furnishing the home with a lot of wood

Building a dog house with wood

Adding a wooden fence around the property

Sitting in a wooden rocking chair on his wooden porch

Sleeping at night in a bed framed with wood

Planting trees to grow wood for the future

Grill parties fueled by wood based charcoal 

Cutting down trees to gather wood for the fire pit 

Collecting family memories in wood framed photographs

He grows old gracefully in his favorite wooden chair

Passing away and laid to rest in his wooden coffin

Trees are not PC

Ian Hunter2 Comments

they say that palm trees are not really trees

without bark or growth rings they are not real trees

palm trees are apparently a type of grass

one that its really hard to trim with a lawn mower

palm trees can live for hundreds of years

I wonder if other grasses can live so long

who will be mowing my lawn in 2519

probably some kind of robotic device

while the householder mines old youtube archives

laughing at me pushing a lawnmower around 

I wonder where palm trees go when they get really old

no need to retire to a tropical place when you already live there

do real trees look down on palm trees

calling them names like fake trees

yelling things like show us your growth rings

the palm trees start shouting back

you trees have a cold wooden heart 

you are all jealous because we make the coconuts

I think its starting to make sense now

real trees grow in communities called forests

palm trees grow side by side in clumps

the two groups rarely mix together

because they just cannot get along

trees can be so politically incorrect

perhaps we should force them to change

by building communities of mixed palm and real trees

lecturing them on diversity and tolerance

forcing them to hold democratic elections

punishing the badly behaved ones

with public executions by chain saw

will these experimental communities thrive for hundreds of years

most likely nature will just take over after the human species becomes extinct

future palm trees will still grow in the tropics

real trees will still make fun of their grassy neighbors